1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a system and method for packetizing a data stream in a peer-to-peer (P2P) based streaming service.
2. Discussion of the Background
A peer-to-peer (P2P) service refers to a service in which data or information is received directly from peer terminals such as personal computers that are connected to a network such as the Internet. The P2P service may be different from a conventional scheme of searching for information on the Internet using a search engine.
Further, ‘streaming’ refers to a technology for play back of a file by receiving the file in real time through a network. For example, progressive streaming is one type of streaming technologies.
When the streaming technology is applied to a P2P technology, server load or service load may be reduced, such that cost reduction for the server operation may be realized. In order to achieve the foregoing, a client using a P2P-based streaming service may incorporate a function for the P2P-based streaming service into a content player to play back a content, such as a multimedia file, and may communicate with a server providing the P2P-based streaming service, thereby embodying the P2P-based streaming service. More particularly, a server may provide a list of contents available on a web page, and the client may select a desired content in the list by clicking the desired content. When the content is selected, the content player installed in the client is executed to play back the selected content. The content player plays back the selected content by receiving the content from the server and other peers using the P2P-based streaming technology. The client and other peers may also be referred to as peer clients or peers.
If a user of the client accesses a server to use the P2P-based streaming service, and selects a content, a peer having the selected content is identified, and connected to the client in order to provide the content to the client. That is, the content player of the client plays back file pieces of the selected content by receiving the file pieces of the content from the server or other connected peers having the content.
In a P2P-based streaming service, predetermined-sized pieces of a data stream may be generated. The predetermined-sized pieces of the data stream may be stably generated according to a preset bit rate of an encoder. However, since a data stream received from an encoder may be inconsistent, an amount of time used for generating each piece may also be inconsistent in this scheme. Accordingly, a varying packetizing rate of the data stream may cause an asynchronization with a peer and thus a sharing ratio may decrease. Further, in order to preset a bit rate of the encoder in a system, the system may need to be re-started if an error occurs in the encoder or the encoder is replaced. Further, the system may not support a Variable Bit Rate (VBR) for the P2P-based streaming service.
To address aforementioned problems, a system and method for packetizing a data stream in a P2P-based streaming service will be provided.